FANtastic!

So, it turned out that Saturday was a festival here in Girona. Basically, it was an extra shopping day. Normally, shops close for lunch on Saturday and don't re-open, but shops didn't close until around 9pm and there were vendors set up along the streets as well. We were shocked when we returned from Figueres to find the streets were packed with people:
We found a delightful shop selling microbrews, local gazpacho, and even botifarra d'ou a local sausage of egg and meat. I'm still shocked by Europe's general lack of open container laws as they nicely opened our beers and we drank them as we browsed the vendors.
Our evening was concluded by a trip to Bauhaus, a large German hardware store chain that reminded me of Home Depot. As you can see from the photo above, it has been quite enjoyable weather during the day. However, this has meant warm evenings. We were there for fans. After a fruitless week looking for a square fan to wedge in our window, our persistence was rewarded and we now enjoy cool, sleep-filled nights.We also bought a vertical fan, which works pretty well. It's still taking us some time to get used to the design though. Who would have thought that fans styles change throughout the world?
Love, fishes, robots, and cool breezes,
--Chrissy and Chee Sing

Temps de Flors

This Sunday, Girona finishes celebrating "Flower Time." The festival consists of a number of exhibitions, more artistic celebrations of spring than displays of living flowers (although plenty are to be had). We enjoyed walking the nearest displays last Saturday. They were quite enjoyable, although the tree below happens to be part of our Plaza's display... Unfortunately, I fear it will soon be removed since it's still in a small pot propped up with boards (they covered the boards with bamboo). We didn't make it out to catch the entire festival as planned since the week was besieged with intermittent pouring rain.
The next closest display to our plaza was at the game shop. They had robots from the group Chee Sing belongs too as well as crazy techno music and adorable (albeit less functional) robot toys.
Most of the displays were in Old Town where lunch prices rose from their normal ~13 euros to over 20 with the influx of local and foreign tourists. It was crazy! Normally uncrowded streets were clogged nose to nose and every other person had a camera slung round their neck.
One of the many highlights of the exhibition was the opportunity to enter a number of the local museums for free to see their displays for the festival as well as locals that would otherwise be closed to the public. There isn't enough room to post all of the photos of the displays, but hopefully this gives you a glimpse of a very interesting week to visit Girona.

Love, fishes, flowers, and robots!
Chrissy and Chee Sing

Dia de Sant Jordi

Friday marks the day of the patron Saint of Barcelona, and is therefore a holiday of sorts throughout Catalonia. I don't think people officially have the day off, but it seemed that everyone was walking around Old Town on la Rambla de la Llibertat looking at the displays (primarily consisting of temporary shops selling either books or roses (and rarely both). Most of the roses were cut (they even had blue), but we found a stand selling potted flowers.
There were a few handicraft (artesania) shops, and a lot of clubs out as well. Chee Sing compared it to "that day at OSU when they try to get you to join all of the clubs." We got some swag from the bike club when I bought a guide to hikes starting from Girona. The naturalist club was out, the voting crew was at it again (on the 25th there's a vote to gauge opinion on Catalonian independence), and even some highschoolers were fundraising by selling cake.
Dia de Sant Jordi is the closest holiday here to Valentine's day. Women are presented with roses, and men with books. My idea, instead of a book in Catalan was to buy Chee Sing (and myself) a new board game with an "instruction book." So, he bought me a rose in the morning, we walked around browsing, we came home for lunch (since by then the game store had closed), we left for the game store, revisited the shops (with a camera in tow), and bought a few little things like a milkshake and the hiking book.

Our new game is Mr. Jack. It's a 2-player game with a serious instruction booklet (it really is like a book). I'm a big fan of my new rose. It wasn't huge and showy (as seemed to be the fashion) but adorable and potted!
The Catalonian flags are still out in many places, decorating the city in streaks of yellow and red. Chee Sing re-told an origin story of the flag (the Senyera) - there are a number - where the king of France painted his blood on the count of Barcelona's shield (which was yellow) after being mortally wounded (= 4 bloodly finger streaks) as a thank you to the count. I would rather just have a "thank you," but maybe that's just me :)

Love, fishes, and robots!
Chrissy and Chee Sing

Easter

Bona Pasqua!

In celebration of the Easter holiday we headed out on Friday night (10pm) to catch an Easter parade from the cathedral.

The outfits (aside from the awesome Roman soldiers) are a bit creepy if you come from the States and associate people in pointy capped white cloaks with a very dark part of our nation's history, but the children and community bands are easy to love with their brassy charm. The floats are Jesus in various forms (often in distress), and were elaborate works that reflected what we can only assume to be the love of the group who made/carried them (they were ported by members of the hooded brotherhoods).

Interesting to note, there appeared to be as many women as men in hooded robes, and children participated in the robes without hoods.

The parade drew a very large crowd well in advance of the event (which is interesting considering "Spanish time"). It is also interesting that while children receive candy for Easter, we didn't spot any of the large commercial Easter baskets at the grocery store. We indulged in Kinder Sorpresas and stacked the toys on our banister.

Love, fishes, and robots!
Chrissy and Chee Sing